Birthdays Are Cold Affairs
by corvusdraconis
Summary: AU: Severus finds himself walking alone in a blizzard to celebrate his lonely birthday. Sometimes the best laid plans are doomed to failure. Outtake in the world from Looks Can Be Deceiving. In honour of Severus' birthday today. One-shot.


**A/N:** Just a little short, based on the world created in my regular story _Looks Can Be Deceiving_ in honour of Severus' birthday. All blame for this detour goes to Story Please. All HP characters/world credit to JKR, without whom my brain could not go on random tangents such as these.

Note to my followers for _Looks Can Be Deceiving_, this is again, one of my "possible outcomes" which may or may not become reality in the canon of the actual story. Let me know what you think, and who knows!

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**Birthdays are Cold Affairs**

The wind was bitter cold, making the already existing cold seem even even more cold. Each gust seemed to simultaneously make his eyes water and freeze his eyeballs to his eyelids at the same time. It was, by far, not the most enjoyable experience he had put himself through.

Severus grunted, pulling his travelling cloak around his shoulders more tightly and the hood over his head, trying to keep some of the heat he was leaking out into the air around himself. The warming charm on his cloak would normally suffice, but it seemed like just when he was starting to get warm, the wind would shift and find some way to blow right up his spine. The feeling in his fingers were starting to leave forwarding messages from south of the equator, and his feet were cursing at him in some language that may or may not have been ancient Sumatran.

He was pretty sure his feet were demanding to know why he was walking around in sub-zero weather while the majority of those that stayed over for the winter at Hogwarts were cozily warm by their fires. The people in Hogsmeade were most definitely enjoying warm hearths and drinks, and, from what he gathered from the news, all of London was buried in a freak snowstorm that covered every house, yard, road, and highway with snow up the waist.

He didn't really have an answer for his feet, not that they and his brain were on speaking terms, and his fingers were AWOL dreaming of places with warm sandy beaches and palm trees, so he couldn't even have them translate for him. As it was, his eyes were threatening to shut down for the winter holiday, and he was fairly positive that every time the wind blew it was trying to freeze the fluid cushioning his brain.

It was about this time, just as he was about to take out his wand and set himself on fire just to regain some sensation anywhere in his body, that he arrived at the familiar grassy knoll.

Grassy was relative, as it was covered in snow up to his thigh in strange banks that seemed to create a ramp all around him. There were a number of piles of snow, where it looked like the trees simply got fed up holding the snow up in their branches and decided to dump it all to the ground.

The view across the frozen lake and over Hogwarts was stunning as usual. The skies were dark, save the backdrop of the Milky Way splashed across the night's canvas, and below it was the majestic spires of Hogwarts. The view never ceased to put his life in perspective, his life but one small flicker against the field of countless stars.

He smirked as he thought of the stars. Magorian would chuckle at him, convinced he was finally content with the role of the stars and planets above—whispering their possible futures through their celestial movements.

After countless years, or so it seemed, Severus was still at Hogwarts. He, much like the planets around the sun, orbited around Hogwarts, unable to escape. No matter what he did— it was here that he had lost Lily so many years ago. Not her life, no. That had come later, but Hogwarts was where he lost her ear, her companionship, and her forgiveness.

His mind formed the image of her unbidden, pulling up her distinctive eyes and red hair. The image of her was forever frozen in two states for him, almost overlapped on top each other. One was of the adult who had moved on to marry James Potter… the one that sacrificed her life for the son she had barely known. The other was her so much younger, laying side by side with him on the grass, her wavy red hair blowing in the wind… That had been before his mouth had broken years of friendship. One image had been the only good thing in his childhood life, the other had been the worst. Lily Potter was his memory's dichotomy of the closest thing he had to happiness as a child and anguish as an adult. There would be no resolution there. He would never be able to meet up with her over coffee as she tended her multiple red-headed grandchildren and tell her how much he truly regretted that one day of all days and the cascade of mistakes he had made after.

He looked upward. It was his birthday. Just another day. One more day that countless Hogwarts students cursed his name with his homework assignments. One more day that the last thing any of them would do was wish him well, let alone a happy day. He had seen to that. His guard, in all the years he had held it, never faltered while he was teaching. At first, it had been self defence. Later, it had been necessity. Now, it was habit born of ceaseless practice. Severus smirked. He had no doubt that if he were to suddenly become emotionally expressive in his classes, that the majority of his students would have coronaries on the spot, and the Hospital Wing would be full of his students.

The sound of snow creaking broke him out of his thoughts. It was, he would think later, the only warning he had, and he should have seen it coming. He would later admit that he deserved what he got, walking out in the biting cold in the middle of the night to gaze on the stars as he lost feeling in his extremities.

The snow pile nearest him shifted, and a dark blur busted out of it like trapdoor spider leaping on its prey. Just as his mind registered this turn of events, another snow pile next to him busted open and a secondary mass flew out of it, slamming into him at the same time with a high-pitched eagle squeak and canine growl.

The stars flickered above him as his head hit the ground and all the wind in his lungs escaped in a wheeze. He vaguely noted that Jupiter and Venus were in syzygy, coming into perfect alignment.

Two exceedingly warm bundles of fur and feathers wriggled against him, chirping and growling excitement as they snuggled into his chest, his neck, under his arms, and anywhere they could. Sharp claws dug into his robes, and he thanked Merlin profusely for the thickness of the cloth, multiple layers of thick cloth, and the fact that he never left home without it. Just in case, he mused, were he to be bushwhacked by ambush predators hiding in the snow.

Dark-eyed bestial faces looked at him adoringly from their pinning position on his chest. The eagle-headed monster squeaked and chirped at him, nipping under his chin with beak. Lion paws kneaded his chest, claws extending and retreating as his rear talons clung to the thick fabric of his robes. A long peacock tail swished back and forth with enthusiasm. The canine-headed beast lapped under his chin like a puppy, her eagle taloned forelegs clung to his robes as her rear paws struggled to clamber for purchase on his waistcoat. Her lion tail swished back and forth wildly, slightly puffed out in her excitement.

The both of them emitted the furnace-like warmth of their parents, steam rising from their bodies as they shared it with him, willing or not.

Slowly, Severus regained feeling in his hands as he stroked each of the simurghlets, his fingers buried in the soft fur and feathers of his attackers. The pair were exceedingly heavy, either that or he was getting weaker in his old age.

A hand grasped the male simurghlet by the scruff of the neck, causing the little beast to chirp sadly, his legs pumping to try and return back to Severus' chest.

"Severus Tihomir Krum," the stern voice addressed her furred and feathered progeny. The same voice spit out a chain of things in Bulgarian before the male beast wriggled against his stern looking mother appealingly, his peacock tail swishing back and forth as he lay his eagle head on her chest and stared at her in appeasement.

Another hand reached down and pried the enthusiastic female simurghlet off Severus. "Lily Tatiana Krum," growled the male voice attached to the hand. More Bulgarian, said with a rumbling growl.

The little female simurghlet whined softly, licking at the bottom of her father's stern face, her paws and legs pumping to cling to her father's robes as her wings flapped rapidly in appeal.

"Are you… undamaged, father?" Hermione asked warmly, extending her free hand and arm to him to help pull him up. Her other arm was cradling the wriggling simurghlet that really wanted get back to loving on his namesake.

Severus pulled himself up with a grunt. "I am… not fatally wounded." The corner of his mouth twitched upward.

"Good to know," Viktor rumbled as he plopped his enthusiastic child into the snow.

Hermione dropped her son down on top of her daughter, and the two little beasts tumbled and growled and rolled around in the snow bank, forgetting everything else.

Severus raised an eyebrow as he watched them. "I take it you are still hard pressed to keep them in human form," he said with amusement.

"Cannot blame dem," Viktor replied. "Who vant to run around cold and grounded when you can be immune to cold and fly?"

"You're blaming the season then?" Severus chuckled. "Not the parents who prefer to wander the world as a gryphon and simurgh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Father," Hermione said, tilting her head in a perfect echo of Severus. Her familiar black robes hung from her shoulders like a drape, making it clear that exactly who she took after, even now, years after her days as a student and his Apprentice were behind her.

Hermione grinned at him and unceremoniously slammed into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and rubbing her face into his chest. "Happy Birthday, Father," she crooned. She hooked her arm around Viktor and dragged him into the hug.

The Bulgarian wizard grunted, but hugged the old Potion Master as well, allowing the warmth of the bonds between them to resonate.

"You pick the coldest night of the season to have a birthday, Uncle," Draco's voice chided as he trudged up the path.

The two simurghlets instantly perked their heads and went tearing down the path. Just as Draco emerged from the other side of the hillside path, the two beasts took a flying leap and slammed into him excitedly, toppling the blond-haired wizard into the nearby snowbank with an oof.

"Hrm," Severus commented. "Is that how undignified I looked? It certainly felt that undignified."

"Sev…erus," Draco sputtered as he was snuggled and lapped and preened from all angles. "Lil…y… ARGH!" The wizard flopped in the snow, lifeless.

The two little beasts froze, their bodies still as they slowly nudged Draco with no effect.

Lily let out a soft whine. Little Severus tapped Draco with his beak over and over, chirping with concern.

Lily scooted under Draco's hand, trying to get him to pet her head. Her lion tail swished back and forth as she whined softly. Her brother did much the same, placing his head on Draco's arm and chirped mournfully.

Suddenly Draco "returned to life" and pounced on his niece and nephew with a roar, pinning the two in the snow and tickling them mercilessly.

The two beasts chirped and growled and yipped as they squirmed in the snow, legs pumping, wings flapping, and tails swishing as Draco rendered them into a puddle of goo with the power of his hands.

Viktor and Hermione shook their heads and pulled Draco into the group hug. All of them snuggled into Severus in further greeting, making sure to rub their scents onto him as much as they were rubbing his all over themselves.

"Sorry, I was late," Draco apologised. "I was held up visiting mother. She was feeling quite lonely. Tonks and Aunt Andromeda are still on holiday, and mother doesn't want to admit it, but she really misses when they are not around."

Severus nodded. "I am glad they are getting along."

"She sent me with about five trays of baked goods to give you for your birthday, Uncle. I dropped them off at the Aerie before I came."

"Five… trays?" Severus repeated.

"She bakes when she's lonely," Draco said, tilting his head.

Severus arched a brow. "Perhaps… we should invite her over. "As much as I do adore a good assortment of baked goods…"

Draco smirked. "I think she'd like that. I think… she's ready to."

Severus nodded.

Hermione stepped back and pulled a parcel out of her thick winter robes and tapped it with her wand. It enlarged, and she handed it to Severus with a smile. "Most of the gift giving is waiting back at the Aerie, and we had tried to get you this earlier, but you went off walking the blizzard earlier than we anticipated."

Severus took the bundle with a raised brow.

Multiple sets of eyes were staring at him intently, including two young simurghlets, who were staring up at him from the ground, wings fluttering in excitement.

Severus, suspicious to the last, carefully undid the ribbon that held the parcel closed, his long, elegant fingers moved under the folds of paper to release the contents. His brows furrowed as his hand touched something undeniably soft.

The paper fell away as Severus pulled a long drape of cloth. He unfurled it and it took the shape of a long travelling cloak. The fabric was light as gauze, but it radiated warmth far more than a simple warming charm. When he flipped the fabric over, the inner lining was embroidered in silver over a dark emerald silk. There was a scene emblazoned across the silk like a tapestry. The gryphon and simurgh were raised up on their rear legs, stretching their claws out in the rampant positioning found on heraldry with a serpent draped between them like a garland, on each side were two miniature slightly mismatched versions of themselves. Four elemental birds flew across the sky, their tails forming a sort of elemental rainbow. A herd of centaurs lurked in the woven forests. A wolf, a dog, and a ringtail stood on the hill overlooking the scene. A three-headed dog sat overlooking another hill, with a small tabby cat curled up at his feet. At the apex of the sky was the spread wings of an owl, casting its shadow to the all of creation. At the throat of the cloak was an ornate owl and serpent clasp with dark onyx eyes.

Severus touched the clasp with his fingers, his lips pressed together with emotion. He removed his normal cloak, wincing as the cold told him he was utterly nutters for doing so. He swirled the new cloak around him and clasped it at this throat, and immediately the intricate enchantments that had gone into its making warmed him completely, rendering him impervious to the bitter cold. His fingers remained warm despite not having gloves, and his feet no longer cursed at him in ancient Sumatran.

Severus' black eyes were warm as he took in the sight of his daughter, his son-in-law, he godson, and his two mutant furry and feathered grandchildren. "Thank you," he said softly.

They gazed upon him warmly, and the memories of uncounted years standing on this hill each year at this time, alone and uncelebrated, faded to be replaced by something undoubtedly whole.

Draco cleared his throat. "Not to be the token cold-blooded reptile of this group, Uncle, but the snake in this group would really like to return to the Aerie for warmth before I become a snake-cicle."

Severus smirked and wrapped his old cloak around Draco and clasped it to his throat. He knelt down in the snow and opened his arms to the two simurghlets, who bounded into his arms with a happy bark and eagle chirp.

He stood, his lips curved into a subtle upward curve. "To Home it is then," he said.

"To Home," they answered him.

"And to Family," Severus replied softly.

CRACK.

They were gone.

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**A/N:** Happy Birthday, Severus. You deserve your piece of the happy ending.

**Also: **Oops I forgot to put Mr. Taipan on the cloak. That was fixed. Thanks for having a good eye for me, folks! I love you all!


End file.
